Wednesday Wisdom

Where in your body are you holding your breath — not just today, but in your life?

Not the obvious breath-holding when things feel hard.But the quiet, invisible kind.The one that hides even inside a “good day.”

There are times I arrive at a Living Rhythm session feeling genuinely well. The day has flowed. Nothing dramatic. Nothing “wrong.”And yet, once the body begins to move, once breath is given permission to deepen, a large release moves through me anyway. Heat. Tears. Trembling. A long exhale I didn’t know I’d been waiting for.

That’s how discreet it can be.How hidden.

The body doesn’t measure wellness by how the day looked.It measures what was carried.

Bessel van der Kolk’s work gave modern language to this — that the body keeps the score. That unprocessed experience doesn’t disappear; it lodges itself in muscle tone, breath patterns, organ systems, the nervous system’s set point.

But the ancients already knew this.

They understood the body as an emotional landscape. Each organ a keeper of memory. Each hour of the day a doorway into a particular system and its emotional tone. When we wake in the night, again and again at the same time, it’s often not the bladder calling — it’s the psyche.

Something stirring. Something asking for space to be felt.

The lungs carry grief — the sighs never taken, the losses we learned to move past too quickly. Breath becomes small, cautious.

The kidneys hold fear — deep survival-level fear that keeps us vigilant, tired, braced.

The liver stores anger and frustration — especially the kind that had nowhere to go. Tight jaws. Headaches. Rigid hips.

The heart holds both joy and sorrow. When overwhelmed, sleep becomes light, emotions either flood or flatten.

The spleen carries worry — the looping mind, the heaviness that comes from thinking instead of trusting.

This same emotional holding shows up in everyday aches we normalise:

• Neck stiffness from carrying responsibility.

• Shoulder pain from burdens we never put down.

• Back pain from a lack of support.

• Hip pain from resisted change.

• Knee pain from rigidity or pride.

• Headaches from pressure and control.

None of this is loud.None of it needs a “bad day” to exist.

That’s why release can come even when life feels good.

The body works on a deeper clock.It releases when it finally feels safe enough.

So before you move on, pause here.

Unclench your jaw.Drop your shoulders.Exhale like you’ve just been told you’re not in trouble.

Let the breath find the places that have been holding quietly — faithfully — for a long time.

And if you feel the pull to explore this more deeply, to meet your body regularly rather than only when something breaks, you’re welcome to join us.

You can find Living Rhythm sessions, reflections, and ongoing support at the Qisong website.

Subscribe there to receive regular updates and stay connected to this work — a gentle returning, again and again, to your own rhythm.

Let the body lead.

Retune your Flow